


A Soulmate Who Wasn't Meant to Be

by bakhoe



Category: Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff, Gen, Shingeki no Kyojin | Attack on Titan Manga Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-08
Updated: 2021-02-08
Packaged: 2021-03-13 09:55:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,624
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29276562
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bakhoe/pseuds/bakhoe
Summary: reader is in love with armin and armin is in love with annie, and annie loves reader (not really, but you could kind of make it that way if you want)! follow them through out the years to see how that ends!i suck at summaries but i'm better at writing! :)
Relationships: Annie Leonhart/Reader, Armin Arlert/Reader
Comments: 4
Kudos: 35





	A Soulmate Who Wasn't Meant to Be

**YEAR** **848**

(Y/N) felt her fingernail scrape against the hardwood underneath her, her feet twirling around together as she stared at the blond boy across the dining hall. She smiled slightly at the sight of him explaining something to Eren and Mikasa in whispered excitement, constantly gesturing at the small notebook he had in front of him. While Reiner and Bertolt were droning on about some kind of nonsense, and Annie was her usual quiet self in the crowded area, (Y/N) found herself going through her nightly routine:

  1. Hunt down Annie after training to head over to dinner. 
  2. Get said dinner and proceed to hunt down Reiner and Bertolt, who more often than not, were already finishing up their first plate of food. 
  3. Find the perfect spot to sit at to watch Armin from afar and use their voices as background noises.
  4. Finally, come up with all these obscure plans to gather the courage to finally speak to Armin as a friend, but at the very last minute, shy away. 



It was truly a simple, predictable routine but to her knowledge and surprise, no one knew about her infatuation with the smartest boy in the 104th training corps. She finally looked away from Armin as to not raise suspicion from anyone and picked up her metal spoon to play around with the brown sludge they had decided to feed them tonight. She turned her head slightly to glance at the almost empty plate on Annie’s side, surprised she actually ate it. 

“You should eat,” Annie commented. (Y/N) looked up at her piercing blue eyes and smiled, quirking an eyebrow to her blonde friend. “Who would want to eat this though?”

“A soldier who needs enough energy to survive an attack, if it were to happen tomorrow” she said matter-of-factly. (Y/N) felt herself warm up at Annie’s remark, always feeling a bit inferior at the girl’s determination at succeeding. But, that was also the reason (Y/N) pushed herself constantly, so she nodded and dipped her spoon into the brown mess and took a bite. She could feel her nose scrunch up in disgust as she closed her eyes, ready to swallow. 

“(Y/N), I gotta marry you,” Reiner stated loudly, the phrase practically echoing throughout the room. (Y/N) shot up straight in her seat, brows furrowed in confusion. Her eyes shot towards the table Armin was sitting at, and to her horror, Armin had heard the outburst. She quickly bent her head to hide her face, at least, as much as she could. 

“What are you even talking about?” she whispered hurriedly, wishing she could just crawl into a hole. She felt Annie get up, (Y/N) just imagining the way her eyes rolled at Reiner’s flirtation. The loudmouth in front of (Y/N) laughed, the sound booming from his chest as he reached over to her hand pressed against the table. (Y/N) sat up straight once again, ignoring the lingering stares as she pushed his large hand away from herself. 

“You’re an angel among us (Y/N)! I would be so lucky to call you my wife…” he trailed off as Bertolt placed a hand on Reiner’s shoulder, the tan boy shaking his head in discouragement from the broad blond’s actions. She stood up quickly, gathering the tray of food she barely touched to throw away before heading back to her room. (Y/N) walked with her head casted downwards in embarrassment, deciding the best thing to do was just leave and hope everyone forgot his outburst by morning. 

(Y/N) was extremely grateful towards Reiner, he was the only friend she was able to make the first week they trained. It opened the doors to meet Bertolt and Annie, and coming from a small village where the girls desired to become school teachers or housewives along with the boys desiring to become doctors, none of her friends decided to follow her. She couldn’t blame them but it hurt to be alone for a few days, but after Reiner introduced himself, the four of you have become inseparable. That did not excuse him for being too much at times. 

(Y/N) shook her head as she opened the girl’s dormitory, watching how Annie swiftly put on a sleeping shirt to sneak into her respective bed. (Y/N) could barely pick up her feet as she dragged them inside the room, rubbing her eyes in annoyance. 

“I wouldn’t worry, you know…” Annie said from her bottom bunk. 

“About what? Reiner forcing a ring down my finger?” (Y/N) asked, placing her forehead against the bedpost. 

“No, you know, I don’t… I don’t think Armin really noticed what he said,” Annie said as she brought her blanket up to her shoulders. (Y/N) felt her eyes widen and her body warm up at the mention of a specific boy she hadn’t uttered the name of. She quickly sat on Annie’s bed, bending down to the blonde’s face to see her in the dark. “What–! Why? What do you mean?” (Y/N) squeaked out, Annie scanning over her friend’s frantic face. 

“You practically glare at him every day,” Annie admitted cooly, and though it would sound harsh to someone else, (Y/N) knew that she meant it in good faith. 

“It’s not like that!” (Y/N) cried out, covering her face with her hands. Annie couldn’t help but feel her heart tug at the sight of her closest friend freaking out over a boy, like a normal teenage girl. Like a girl who doesn’t have to worry about the monsters outside the walls, it was innocent, it was pure, and it was something that warmed Annie’s heart. It warmed it enough to let her playful side come out for a second, Annie smirking at the girl who was still blubbering out some muffled words. 

“I see the way you stutter around him, Reiner would kill for you to speak to him like that,” she teased, causing (Y/N) to peak from behind her hands. (Y/N) loved when the rare personality type would slip out, but if Annie’s attacks were directed at (Y/N)? She would rather eat the brown slush. “Or, the way you turn on your heel at the last second when you walk up to him?”

(Y/N) quickly stood up to stare at her friend, baffled at how Annie was playfully taunting her. She bent her knees to lean against Annie’s bed again, burying her head against the blanket that decorated the hard mattress. “Am I that obvious?” (Y/N) squeaked out. 

“It’s obvious to me, I don’t think anybody else has caught on. Reiner would have confronted me about it,” she said, watching the girl’s slouch a little at the reassurance. “I wouldn’t worry about it (nickname), you should go for it,” Annie said as she leaned against her elbow. (Y/N) looked up to look at the blonde girl who had a mischievous glint to her blue eyes. 

“You think so? What if he doesn’t like me back?”

“Then you have Reiner to fall back on.”

“No!”

##  **YEAR 852**

“Hey Annie,” (Y/N) whispered at the crystallized rock, looking at the slightly warped image of the blonde. (Y/N) sighed as she dug into her green coat, pulling out a small beaded necklace she found at the market and placed her bottom against the cold stone. “I found this, it reminded me of your eyes… I wish you would open them because I’m not sure if they’re the same color,” she showed the rock the necklace half-assed, placing her head against her own sharp knee. (Y/N) never waited for a response from the sleeping beauty, all hope of hearing her friend’s voice again fading a couple of years ago. But, she longed for her blunt voice to sarcastically say something to her again, she craved to have her Annie back. 

“I miss you, ya know?” She asked, feeling her heart tug again. “You could always, I don’t know, stop being a rock? Tell us that this was some kind of misunderstanding… That you were somehow trying to help… us,” (Y/N) felt herself trail off, knowing what she was saying was ridiculous and wrong. As much as she wanted to believe that Annie was trying to help them, she knew better then to believe in her fantasies. She hugged her knees to her chest, feeling broken once again as little sad breaths filled the silent room. 

“It hurts Annie, to think about everything again,” she took a little gasp of air as she felt emotions fill her eyes. “To think about how you three would protect me during training, to think about how Reiner helped me during missions.” (Y/N) could feel her eyes swell with tears, wishing that Annie would at least glance at her. “To think about how nice you were to me, why was that Annie? Why were you so close to me, how did I benefit your plan?”

(Y/N) could feel herself fall in the same pit of confusion and anxiety, remembering how heartbroken she was when they were hunting Annie down, how horrified she was to see how mutilated and pathetic Reiner looked against the wall after retaking Wall Maria, how she was filled with grief as she saw Bertolt beg for his life as Armin ate him. It was all too much. 

(Y/N) sobbed softly into her lap, trying to maintain the sounds to a minimal volume in case Hitch was eavesdropping again. She missed her friends more than anything, she missed the feeling of Reiner’s arms around her, the feeling of Bertolt placing a long arm on top of her head, the feeling of being wanted around by Annie. (Y/N) missed Annie. But as soon as she started to cry, she could hear steps go down the stone floor, so with a quick flick of the wrist, she wiped away her tears from her cheeks and sat up straight to greet whoever was coming to visit. 

Before the body fully descended into the room, (Y/N) realized who it was by the voice that echoed in the small chamber, “Hope I’m not interrupting, Hitch told me you were down here.” (Y/N) felt goosebumps crawl up her body as she saw the blond boy stand in the bottom step, smiling at the sitting figure. 

“‘S fine, don’t worry about it,” she said as she stood up to face him eye-to-eye. “I was just showing her a necklace that reminded me of her,” she said sadly. Armin tilted his head in curiosity, enough for (Y/N) to understand he wanted to see it. She pulled out the string of beads to place on his palm, beautiful ocean eyes looking at piercing blue plastic. 

“Her eyes…” he commented sadly, turning to face the crystal. (Y/N) hummed in agreement, looking at the same woman he was. She wasn’t dumb, she knew why he was here, but every time they would bump into each other it hurt her. How he would rather talk to someone that couldn’t even respond back to him, when (Y/N) was there to listen. “It’ll look nice on you,” he finished, handing the simple piece of jewelry back to the owner. She felt butterflies roar in her stomach as she took the delicate string, bowing her head in embarrassment. “Thank you,” she said.

_If only you could see me talking to him Annie. Not a stuttering mess anymore._

“What’s that?” she questioned the book under his arm. He stretched his arm out to show you his new personal notebook, envy filling (Y/N). Even as she slept, Annie was succeeding at everything (Y/N) wanted to succeed in. But guilt quickly took over, her eyes flinching at her own commentary and shook her head in disbelief. 

“Theory talk?” she questioned as he sat down in front of Annie, his face gazing up at the standing woman. He hummed, smiling. And with that, with a simple facial gesture, (Y/N) got the cue to leave. Armin would never hurt her on purpose, and wouldn’t even think about kicking her out of the chamber, but (Y/N) understood that it was private. So, she left. 

##  **YEAR 854**

“You’re…” (Y/N) felt anxiety rise in her chest as she stared at a memory of the past standing in front of her. “… awake?” Annie’s eyes were filled with remorse, with guilt, with despair, it was filled with every synonym in the thesaurus. The blonde watched how every emotion passed by the (H/C)-haired girl in front of her, the reunification between the two girls taking a rocky toll in the middle of a market. 

(Y/N) could feel herself back into the arms of Connie, his hands grasping her shoulders. She could feel tears filled with every single emotion threaten to fall as she whispered out a weak, “why?” Annie knew what she was asking, she knew that (Y/N) wasn’t asking about why she woke up: (Y/N) was asking why they protected her and even though she thought about it for years, she never came up with an answer besides, “We loved you, I love you.” 

(Y/N) quickly pushed herself off of Connie, quickly rushing away to anywhere but there. 

##  ******

“Want to take a seat?” Annie asked, leaning her back against the railing of the boat. The blonde placed a white hand against the spot next to her, staring up at Armin. Armin could feel his heart quicken at the simple gesture, looking at the woman he longed after for years, asking him to sit next to him. Armin blushed lightly as he took a seat next to the petite blonde, staring in front of him to the ocean on the other side. Comfortable silence filled the open air until Annie spoke up once again. 

“I figured that I hadn’t thanked you yet, so…”

“Huh?” 

“For years, you came to talk to me,” she took a pause and continued to stare at the wooden planks of the boat. “Thank you. 

“Oh, yeah…”

“I was so lonely that I felt like I might lose my mind, the only thing I could look forward to was hearing you, Hitch and,” she took a pause once again to feel guilt bubble up in her throat. “And (Y/N).”

“Annie…” he cooed out.

“But… why? Why did you even bother talking to a rock that couldn’t so much as grunt a response back to you? There…” she took a glance at the man beside her. “Must have been more fun and cheerful girls out there, right? Like (Y/N)?” 

“That’s–!” he bowed his head in embarrassment as he raised his hand to touch his hair for comfort. “No… Annie, I did it because I wanted to see you.” Annie’s eyes widen in Armin’s direction, seeing how the wind blew between his small blond hairs. That was the last thing she wanted to hear him say. Her heart quickened in guilt.

(Y/N).

Her sweet (Y/N) she had met through training, sweet (Y/N) who confided her secrets to her, sweet (Y/N) that still fawned over the man next to her when she was crystallized. The man who made (Y/N) blush and swoon, but Annie couldn’t help but feel those things for him too. It made her feel bad, she could never hurt (Y/N) again. So she just bent her head down to her knees, taking a deep inhale before breathing out a weak, “why?” Armin tilted his head in confusion, glancing over to the woman who had buried her head into her arms. 

“Huh? Do you really not get it? Even though Hitch teases me that much?”

Annie’s heart beat hurriedly, her head hanging low against her chest in despair. The guilt only grew at each word he would say to her, she couldn’t help but see the face of her smiling friend, the friend she had betrayed. 

“…I don’t,” she whispered out, trying to avoid the feelings bubbling up in her chest. 

Annie took a deep inhale as her brows furrowed together, thinking about how to continue the conversation. But she wasn’t able to think about how (Y/N) would become so clumsy around Armin, how she could barely say a word to him, how she broke her heart. She shook her head, trying to clear her consciousness. 

“I think I get it. You’re a good person. And that’s why you were even willing to talk to an enemy like me, right?” She lifted her head to stare out into the ocean once again, butterflies erupting in her stomach as she thought about how it felt like she was looking at Armin in the eyes. “It’s the same reason why you should go for her,” she said, quickly getting back on focus. He knew who Annie was referencing, not needing her to even utter her name. “You know she’s been in love with you, right? Has she confessed yet? You just wanted to avoid feeling lonely, as soon as you felt Eren drift from you, you wanted to talk to someone, so you spoke to a monster like me.”

She glanced at the boy who played with his fingers, silence falling between the two of them again. So Annie stood up to leave, but a jerk brought her to bend her back a bit; a hand wrapped around her wrist. 

“Sit down,” and though it was more of a suggestion, it sounded like a command. Before she could refuse, he heard him start to speak. 

“I know I told you this before, but I really don’t like being called a good person.” Annie’s eyes widened again, sliding back down against the railing to fall against the floor to sit next to the man speaking. She felt guilty. “I’ve been a monster for a long time now,” he said as he glanced at the woman next to him. A bird swooped in before it took off towards the sky, both people watching the bird fly across the sky. 

“I’ve known for a while, she’s never said anything herself, but Sasha…” Armin cut off to take a breath. “She kind of gave it away, but…” Annie tilted her head towards the young man, eyes filled with curiosity and panic.

“I was waiting for you to wake up one day, two monsters for each other?” 

Annie shook her head, her heart doing unnecessary flips to his words. “No,” Annie responded simply, Armin’s heart breaking in two. “Even if you say you aren’t a good person, if you say you killed all those people, you are too good for me,” she could hear him trying to interrupt her but she took her stand and continued her speech. “Even if we survive all of this, I’m only alive for two years Armin– two. You would have nine years, you’d get to live nine beautiful years to build a family, to love someone who has loved you for years.”

He was quiet as he stared out into the open area, listening to every word she said. “You could make (Y/N) happy, she could be happy. And,” she paused as she stood up again, looking at him with faux steel eyes. She knew what she was doing was manipulative, but if it helped mend the broken ties she had with (Y/N), it was worth it. “If you loved me, you’d know that I just want (Y/N) to be happy.” 

And so, with that, she left. 

##  **YEAR 855**

“Annie!” (Y/N) squealed out to the blonde woman from a crowded market gathering, finding said woman eating a whole pie to herself. (Y/N) squealed out her name once again, trampling herself over the petite blonde woman. Annie let out a small laugh at the hyperactive (Y/N), catching a few familiar faces trailing behind her. Jean and Mikasa. Connie. Her stomach dropped from catching familiar blond hairs next to Mikasa’s form, and even though Annie couldn’t see him due to (Y/N)’s figure dancing around, she knew he was there. After a few months of avoiding each other, she was confused on why he was willingly presenting himself in front of her.

“Guess what?” And with that, (Y/N) lifted her left hand to show off a small rock that glittered due to the sunlight hitting it with elegance. Annie gaped her mouth, such a small ring hurting her heart, and though she wasn’t shocked to see it, she thought he would have at least waited for her to pass away before putting a ring on it. But, (Y/N) was her friend, and she was still overwhelmed with joy to see (Y/N)’s glee. 

“Can you believe it? He proposed! He proposed!” Annie laughed joyfully as she hugged her friend in delight, watching how (Y/N) jumped up and down. Annie felt guilty for feeling envious at thinking about how her friend got to trace his face in the morning, or get to lovingly make him breakfast on a cold morning. Annie felt guilty for feeling jealous when she recounted all the dates Armin would take her one, but she hid it all with a smile. 

“See? I told you to go for it,” she said with a hint of sadness trailing her tease as she made eye contact with the blond man in front of her. But, as soon as it washed in, it washed out when Annie heard (Y/N) laugh in excitement. It was bittersweet to hear the joy that could have easily been her’s, but Annie felt content to see how (Y/N) rushed over to hug him.


End file.
